Here it is!
My interview with Eric Maisel, godfather of creativity training. Enjoy! 
NOTE: The URL for the book isn't showing up properly in the following text. Simply go to this shortened link
to order the book through Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/33p4eh
MTF: Welcome, Eric! And thanks for joining us on your blog tour.
EM: It’s my pleasure, Maya.
MTF: Eric, in your new book, Ten Zen Seconds, you offer a
very simple but powerful technique for reducing stress,
getting yourself centered, and reminding yourself about
how you want to live your life.
I love your idea of “dropping a useful thought into a deep breath”!
You use a deep breath, five seconds on the inhale and five seconds
on the exhale, paired with a thought that sort of points you in
the right direction for dealing with whatever you are facing.
Where did this idea come from?
EM: It comes from two primary sources, cognitive and positive psychology
from the West and breath awareness and mindfulness techniques from the East.
I’d been working with creative and performing artists for more than twenty
years as a therapist and creativity coach and wanted to find a quick, simple
technique that would help them deal with the challenges they regularly
face—resistance to creating, performance anxiety, negative self-talk about a
lack of talent or a lack of connections, stress over a boring day job or
competing in the art marketplace, and so on.
MTF: Eric, how would you describe TZS to someone who has never worked with
affirmations or breath control?
EM: Taking a deep breath is not mysterious and thinking a thought is not
mysterious, and marrying the two is child’s play. The basic idea of Ten Zen
Seconds is that you can “drop” certain useful thoughts into ten-second-long
deep breaths and in so doing provide yourself with a simple tool and a
complete system for centering and reducing stress.
Because I have a background in both Western and Eastern ideas, it began to
dawn on me that deep breathing, which is one of the best ways to reduce
stress and alter thinking, could be used as a cognitive tool if I found just
the right phrases to accompany the deep breathing. This started me on a hunt
for the most effective phrases that I could find.
MTF: Eric, you call these thought/breath combos “incantations”—
how did you decide to use this particular term?
EM: Well, Maya, it was a tough call whether to use a word from the
world of magic, which “incantation” is, where it stands for a “verbal charm”
meant to produce certain results. I very much liked this idea
and so ended up going with the word, despite the fact that it
comes from the “woo-woo world.” Maybe there was
just a touch of irony at play there, too.
MTF: When you started to select your incantations, how
did you go about finding the ones that would resonate with people?
EM: First, I tried to figure out what are the most important
tasks that we face as human beings, then I came up with
what I hoped were resonant phrases, each of which needed
to fit well into a deep breath, then, most importantly—which
moved this from the theoretical to the empirical—I tested
the phrases out on hundreds of folks who agreed to use them
and report back on their experiences. That was great fun and
eye-opening!
MTF: Oh, we like things that are eye-opening here. And I
love the fact that we are free to tweak the incantations and
come up with the phrases that work for us, depending on our
circumstances.
EM: Of course! People used these phrases to center themselves
before a dental appointment or surgery, to get ready to have a
difficult conversation with a teenage child, to bring joy back to
their performing career, to carve out time for creative work in
an over-busy day—in hundreds of ways that I couldn’t have
anticipated. I think that’s what makes the book rich and special: that, as
useful as the method and the incantations are, hearing from real people
about how they’ve used them “seals the deal.” I’m not much of a fan of
self-help books that come entirely from the author’s head; this one has been
tested in the crucible of reality.
MTF: So, you tested and came up with a list of a dozen incantations.
Tell us about them.
EM: Naturally each incantation is explained in
detail in the book and there are lots of personal reports, so
readers get a good sense of how different people interpret and
make use of the incantations. Here are the twelve (the parentheses
show how the phrase gets “divided up” between the inhale and the exhale:
1. (I am completely) (stopping)
2. (I expect) (nothing)
3. (I am) (doing my work)
4. (I trust) (my resources)
5. (I feel) (supported)
6. (I embrace) (this moment)
7. (I am free) (of the past)
8. (I make) (my meaning)
9. (I am open) (to joy)
10. (I am equal) (to this challenge)
11. (I am) (taking action)
12. (I return) (with strength)
A small note: the third incantation functions differently from the other
eleven, in that you name something specific each time you use it, for
example “I am writing my novel” or “I am paying the bills.” This helps you
bring mindful awareness to each of your activities throughout the day.
MTF: It’s a very creative way to find your own best message!
What are some of the ways you and others are using TZS?
EM: Maya, folks are coming up with all kinds of special uses. One
that I especially like is the idea of “book-ending” a period of work, say
your morning writing stint or painting stint, by using “I am completely
stopping” to ready yourself, center yourself, and stop your mind chatter,
and then using “I return with strength” when you’re done so that you return
to “the rest of life” with energy and power. Usually we aren’t this mindful
in demarcating our activities—and life feels very different when we do.
My web master Ron Wheatley has also designed a
slide show at the Ten Zen Seconds site (http://www.tenzenseconds.com) that
you can use to learn and experience the incantations. The slides that name
the twelve incantations are beautiful images provided by the painter Ruth
Yasharpour and each slide stays in place for ten seconds. So you can attune
your breathing to the slide and really practice the method. The slide show
is available at http://www.tenzenseconds.com/test_photo_slide.html
MTF: Eric, many people are searching for ways to pop into mindfulness
mode throughout the day. They’re not necessarily interested in
meditation, but they do want to learn a quick, simple technique for
centering during times of stress and chaos. How does Ten Zen Seconds
support us in shifting gears during the day?
EM: So much of it is attitudinal. You can either feel pushed and pulled by
everything—or not. You can get a grip on your own mind and not make “big
deals” out of small matters—or you can turn them into dramas and crises.
Stress has to do not with the doing of things but with the thoughts we are
holding as we do those things: the thought, for instance, that we have fifty
more things to do, rather than just being present with the thing in front of
you, peacefully doing it, without a thought as to those other fifty things.
The incantations support this attitudinal shift by helping you completely
stop, by helping you trust yourself, rather than worry about what’s not
going to work or what’s not going to turn out well, and so on. This is all
about the art of “getting out of your own way”—of making things cognitively
easier and better.
MTF: How can people learn more about Ten Zen Seconds?
EM: The book is the best resource. You can get it at Amazon by visiting:
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Zen-Seconds-Eric-Maisel/dp/1402208537/sr=1-25/qid=1167239458/ref=sr_1_25/102-5337867-2282549?ie=UTF8&s=books
Or you can ask for it at your local bookstore. The Ten Zen Seconds website
is also an excellent resource: in addition to the slide show that I
mentioned, there is a bulletin board where folks can chat, audio interviews
that I’ve done discussing the Ten Zen Second techniques, and more. It’s also
quite a gorgeous site, so you may want to visit it just for the aesthetic
experience! I would also recommend that folks check out my main site,
http://www.ericmaisel.com, especially if they’re interested in creativity
coaching or the artist’s life.
MTF: Eric, in addition to training others to be more creative, you’re
always coming up with new projects for yourself! What are you up
to these days?
EM: Plenty! I have a new book out called Creativity for Life, which is roughly
my fifteenth book in the creativity field and which people seem to like a
lot. I also have a third new book out, in addition to Ten Zen Seconds and
Creativity for Life, called Everyday You, which is a beautiful coffee table
book about maintaining daily mindfulness. I’m working on two books for 2008,
one called A Writer’s Space and a second called Creative Recovery, about
using your innate creativity to help in recovering from addiction.
And I’m keep up with the many other things I do: my monthly column for Art
Calendar Magazine, my regular segment for Art of the Song Creativity Radio,
the trainings that I offer in creativity coaching, and my work with
individual clients.
MTF: Whew! Sounds like you have plenty of opportunities to practice the
“I am completely stopping” incantation.
EM: I am happily busy! But my main focus for the year is on
getting the word out about Ten Zen Seconds, because I really believe that
it’s something special.
So I thank you for having me here today!
MTF: Thank YOU, Eric! We really appreciate your wonderful work.
Best of luck on your new projects!
EM: Thanks, Maya. It’s been a pleasure to talk with you.
My husband and I are working on a fun new project. 
